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Approved-By: Andras Riedlmayer <[log in to unmask]>
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Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 14:03:27 -0400
Reply-To: TSA/H-Net List for Turkish and Ottoman History and Culture <[log in to unmask]>
Sender: TSA/H-Net List for Turkish and Ottoman History and Culture <[log in to unmask]>
From: Andras Riedlmayer <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: H-TURK: Iraq libraries: some better news
To: [log in to unmask]
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Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2003 18:55:26 +0100
From: Geoffrey Roper <[log in to unmask]>
We now have confirmation that the largest Iraqi MSS collection, in
what was known as the Saddam Manuscripts Library in Baghdad, is safe.
It contains more than 40,000 Arabic, Turkish, Persian & Kurdish MSS,
including the collections formerly in the Iraq Museum as well as
many other private and mosque collections. All of them were packed
and transferred to safekeeping last winter, in anticipation of
hostilities. We know this from two highly authoritative sources:-
1. The Director of the Library, Usama Nasir al-Naqshabandi, in a
satellite phone converstion with a colleague in the Orient-Institut,
Beirut (many thanks to Wolf-Dieter Lemke for this information).
2. The Director of Research at the Iraq Museum, Donny George,
at a press conference in the British Museum in London yesterday,
which I attended. This was in response to a direct question
about the Saddam MSS Library, for which the Iraq Museum is still
ultimately responsible.
At the same time, there have been press reports that significant
parts of the collections in the National Library and archives were
also saved from the fire and looting. Early newspapers and Ottoman
cadastral registers are reported to have been transferred to safe
storage in March. But we do not know the extent of the losses to
the main printed book collections.
Geoffrey Roper
Islamic Bibliography Unit
Cambridge University Library
=========================================================
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